Bicycles, Coffee & Miscellany

18 years was a good run

Ever since I started taking the train the 1 speed has been seeing more and more action. After I went over the bars of the folding bike in early July it was the only bike I was riding downtown. For what it is I’ve come to enjoy it as my city transportation again–trackstanding at lights and growing accustomed to the scratchiness of a rusty chain funneling through a slightly misaligned stx derailer. I hopped off the train this morning and headed for the racks as usual ready for a sunny morning commute when…

Some douche yanked the back wheel and that was that. Over the years I’ve rebuilt this bike more times than I can count. A few years ago the headset was on its last leg. Then I did a bars reconfiguration and resurrected this bike. Then I broke off the crank arm when I stepped on the gas after a light turned green. Then I resurrected it a second time with a $45 alivio crank purchase the next spring. Now my first ever hand-built wheel was thieved. I promised myself that I wasn’t going to spend any more money on parts specific to this bike given how iffy the headset is. I don’t own any other 26″ rim brake bikes, so seeya. Thanks for the memories. Thing that bums me out more than anything is if I knew my commute to Penn Station Wednesday evening was going to be the last time I ever rode the blue 1-speed I would have savored it a bit more. Anyone who needs a 26″ front mountain wheel or a really swanky set of yellow planet bike fenders hit me up. I could probably part with the frame too if you can put together a good proposal for what you’d do with it. It’d be fun to watch someone else try to squeeze a little more life out of it.

Now I’m left to figure out what I’m going to ride in the city and what I need to do to keep it around in one piece…